During the course of the past forty years, Gloria Steinem has labored on the vanguard of the modern feminist movement. She has made a name for herself as both an outspoken activist and accomplished journalist. When we think of well-known feminists or even famous women in general, Steinems name is usually one of the first that comes to mind. Indeed, having been born after the bulk of feminist organizing, Steinem was the only feminist I knew of until I started reading books on feminism. When I wanted to read definitive book about the womens movement, naturally, I turned to Steinems best-known work, Outrageous Acts and Everyday Rebellions, which is mostly a collection of essays written for Ms., the magazine Steinem co-founded. I ended up liking that book so much that I had to read Glorias second book on feminism, entitled Moving Beyond Words. This most recent book contains essays on six different subjects: the dated philosophy of Sigmund Freud, strength, advertising, wealth, economics, and ageism, which are, as the title suggests, directly related to the politics of gender. By investigating these issues in depth, Steinem sheds some light on how deeply sexism has penetrated our society and offers some solutions as to what can be done to remedy these age-old prejudices.
There were three essays in this book that I particularly enjoyed. The first essay was called What If Freud Were Phyllis? In this hilarious satire, Steinem turns Sigmund Freud into a female named Phyllis Freud and starts reciting Freuds views as if they were biased against men instead of women. By the end of the essay, Steinem manages to rip Freuds remaining credibility to shreds as the reader sees Freud as he really was: a neurotic individual in sincere need of a dose of his own medicine. Personally, I think its time to defrock Freud as the champion of modern psychology as we realize that women, by nature of their gender alone, are not afflicted by sexuality-based psychopathy (as Freud had asserted).
The second outstanding essay in this book was entitled Sex, Lies, and Advertising, an article originally published for Ms. Magazine that received industry-wide attention throughout the magazine and advertising sectors. Within this article, Steinem details the trials of Ms.s attempts to attract decent advertising for their pages. Steinem points out that many womens magazines contain articles that supplement their advertisements by overtly mentioning and recommending the products being advertised. Since the Ms. staff prudently decided to publish material untainted by the influence of ad agencies, many advertisers refused to advertise in Ms. In addition to that, many mainstream advertisers felt that their products -- even common things like cars, credit cards, and insurance -- did not have appeal to a female audience. Therefore, Ms. had a doubly tough time of finding enough willing advertisers to support their liberal publication. Steinem says that she spent around 20 years just begging for ads to keep the magazine running until it was taken over by Australian feminists and then later became ad-free. Still, although the advertising industry has become a little more lax on where it will advertise and under what conditions, the practices that Steinem writes about are still very much in practice today and influence much of what you read in magazines that carry advertisements. This informative article stands out as a startling consumer alert to magazine readers everywhere.
Finally, Steinems closing article titled Doing Sixty contains some poignant thoughts from Gloria as she prepares to turn sixty years of age. She begins by talking about how she has grown more radical over the years as she has learned that it is far more refreshing and life giving to create your own experience rather than attempt to conform to societys prescribed gender roles. She continues by reflecting on how she never given much thought as to what she would do with this last third of her life since the media rarely pays much attention to people over the age of sixty. The prejudices of ageism, Steinem postulates, are almost as deep as the prejudices of sexism. All too often, we dismiss the elderly as having nothing to contribute to our fast-paced, ever-changing society. This is, of course, a counterfactual view rooted in our own fears of growing older. In the end, Steinem concludes that she will keep on living life fully, enraptured in the present while not worrying about the past or future. Steinems attitude towards growing older should be an inspiration to us all as we realize that there is no boundary that should limit our lives -- not race, gender, sexuality, or even age. Despite each of these factors, Steinem remarks, We might as well be who we really are.
One of feminisms main themes is teaching everyone, regardless of sex, that its all right to break traditional barriers. Steinem has lived out her life to illustrate this principle, and by refusing to be defined by societys idea of a woman, she has become a role model for men and women alike. Personally, Steinem has enabled me to let go of being pressured to uphold a traditional masculine stereotype, and in doing so, has allowed me to become a more confident, self-assured person. Speaking even as a man, feminism has given me a new freedom that will allow me to define my own life instead of having my life defined for me. The lessons that each one of us can learn from feminism, as presented in this book, are both limitless and invaluable. By transcending the boundaries of age, rage, sex, power, money, muscles, and gender, we become free to be the people that we really are inside. This process is, without a doubt, the deepest and most powerful revolution of them all.
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